Haying

[Horse]

Hows the haying going, here the real early stuff went up excelent but there is hay been rained on for 2 weeks now and not looking pretty then there is a lot of standing stuff that sure is course now and no haying weather in sight.
Guess there will be a lot of cheap feed but just how cheap is cheap.

[grassfarmer]

Same old story as usual around here. The guys that
were on the ball had it cut and got it well the week it
was 30C. A lot of others started cutting three days
into the hot week, some got it up some didn't. Still
more not started, likely won't until August as usual.
Feed value will nearly always be poor on the late stuff.
Seem to be quite heavy crops around here. I guess
overall there will be all qualities from excellent to
straw feed value.
Glad we quit making hay as our main winter forage in
1986 - have never once regretted moving to silage.

[tweaker101]

trying to hay around the rain is always interesting to say the least, and yes grassfarmer those that were on the ball did get some hay put up in the nice weather. Here in our area the hay is still in good shape, I believe that our hay was a little late getting out of the gate as it was so unseasonally cold and wet that we are now just in full bloom so I guess I will have to wait out the rains and may not have dairy quality hay but I do think that it will do just fine for our cows. I guess if its going to rain tonight I dont care as our baler decided to eat a few bearings and all parts stores are closed on Sunday....thats farming

[15444]

Majority of it here was done two weeks ago. I just started. Every single operation I know is buying hay and/or selling cows. Playing with the money the cows give me, I can't afford to do either, so I will take the most I can get even if the quality is poorer. Most hay around here was down 40 to 50% yield from last year.

On the positive, so far my bale-grazed field yields are double from last year. Pretty good in a drought. One 4 acre field gave me 18 5x5's. Compared to a neighbour's 20 acre field that only gave 42!

[ASRG]

It is so good the "guys that are on the ball" can read the weather down to a science?.....well this year anyway....maybe not so good other years?
Uh.....your feeding beef cows....not dairy cows or race horses?
A cow guys perspective: Quantity.....not quality? Don't flip it and it will be just fine. You aren't feeding a race horse!